The Papacy and Islam

by Richard Bennett and
Robert J. Nicholson

Richard Bennett,
a former Roman Catholic priest, is President and founder of Berean
Beacon Ministries which proclaims the Good News of
Salvation (the Gospel
of Jesus Christ). A ministry of truth, love, and compassion to Roman
Catholics, and plain Biblical truth to Evangelicals embracing a false
ecumenism.

New Partnership with Muslims

In his message to the predominately Muslim nation of Kazakhstan
twelve days after the horrors of September 11th, 2001, the Pope declared,

‘There is one God’. The Apostle proclaims before all else
the absolute oneness of God. This is a truth which Christians inherited from
the children of Israel and which they share with Muslims: it is faith in
the one God, ‘Lord of heaven and earth’ (Lk.10:21), almighty and merciful.
In the name of this one God, I turn to the people of deep and ancient religious
traditions, the people of Kazakhstan.1

He then gave a false
Gospel. Building a “civilization
of love”, he said, is the task of Christians and Muslims. His exact words;were,

This ‘logic of love’ is what he [Jesus] holds out to us,
asking us to live it above all through generosity to those in need. It
is a logic which can bring together Christians and Muslims, and commit them
to work together for the ‘civilization of love’. It is a logic which overcomes
all the cunning of this world and allows us to make true friends who will
welcome us ‘into the eternal dwelling-places’ (Lk.16:9), into the ‘homeland’ of
heaven.”2

His final prayer
was for a partnership between “Christians
and Muslims”. His words were,

And in this celebration
we want to pray for Kazakhstan and its inhabitants, so that this vast nation,
with all its ethnic, cultural
and religious variety, will grow stronger in justice, solidarity and peace.
May it progress on the basis in particular of cooperation between Christians
and Muslims, committed day by day, side by side, in the effort to fulfil
God’s will.3

In spite of the
catastrophic events of September 11th, the Pope has continued faithfully
the Roman Catholic Church policy of affirmation
and approval of Islam. The Vatican speaks officially of the Roman Catholic
Church having the same God and faith of Abraham as the Muslims,

The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. ‘The plan of
salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place
amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham,
and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on
the last day.’4

The Roman Catholic Church officially declares that the One
God of Holy Scripture is also the God of Islam. It also esteems the moral life
of Islam, the affirmation of which follows,

The Church has
also a high regard for the Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living
and subsistent, merciful and almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to men. They strive
to submit themselves without reserve to the hidden decrees of God, just as
Abraham submitted himself to God’s plan, whose faith Muslims eagerly link
to their own. Although not acknowledging him as God, they venerate Jesus
as a prophet, his virgin Mother they also honor, and even at times devotedly
invoke. Further, they await the day of judgment and the reward of God following
the resurrection of the dead. For this reason they highly esteem an upright
life and worship God, especially by way of prayer, alms-deeds and fasting.5

It is clear from
this official recognition that the Church of Rome’s estimation of Islam has
experienced a fundamental change. The Biblical commandment not to venerate
any strange god has been broken by Rome in order
to credit Islam and its adherents with holding to the faith of Abraham. Patently,
this novel re-assessment of the Muslim faith represents a major shift in the
political policy of the Vatican. These official statements are carefully constructed
religious discourse. They are aimed at engendering a new mood of respectful
rapprochement and mutual understanding between the Papacy and Islam. As a device
of diplomatic exchange, they show clearly that a new interfaith-ecumenicity
is being propounded by Rome with the singular objective of embracing Islam
and its peoples within a new international community of religious life and
faith, a community incidentally, in which Rome enjoys priority as founder and
senior partner.

Islam
rejects Trinity, Christ’s
divinity, His sacrifice

Christians believe
in One God, in which One Godhead there exists Three Persons. Islam rejects
this concept as blasphemous. The Qur’an
declares,

Certainly they disbelieve who say: Surely Allah is the third
(person) of the three; and there is no god but the one God, and if they desist
not from what they say, a painful chastisement shall befall those among them
who disbelieve. (Surah 5:73)6

The Bible proclaims
Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross
in place of the believer, "In Whom we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”7 Islam
passionately rejects the crucifixion of Christ Jesus. Thus the Qur’an declares, “And
their saying: Surely we have killed the Messiah, Isa son of Marium, the apostle
of Allah; and they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it appeared
to them so (like Isa) and most surely those who differ therein are only in
a doubt about it; they have no knowledge respecting it, but only follow a conjecture,
and they killed him not for sure.” (Surah 4:157).

The Bible proclaims
Christ Jesus as divine, being the brightness of the divine glory, and the
express image of God. In the Qur’an Christ Jesus
is debased to being solely an apostle of Allah. Thus the Qur’an states, “O
followers of the Book! do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not
speak (lies) against Allah, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Isa son of
Marium is only an apostle of Allah…” (Surah 4.171) Christ Jesus declared, “Before
Abraham was, I am.”8 “I and my Father are one.”9 “I
said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”10 A
religion that rejects Christ’s divinity is dead in its sins. It is an absurd
blasphemy that the Pope declares that the one, living and subsistent God of
the Bible is the same one as the infidel god of Islam.

The
Gospel and the Qur’an’s
religious philosophy

In the Bible the
Gospel is as the Apostle John declared, “This
then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”11 “And
this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”12 The whole purpose
of the God of Scripture is clearly seen in the reason why the Gospel of John
was written, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye
may believe on the name of the Son of God.” This is totally different from
the god of Islam who orders fighting, war, and punishment, by murder, crucifixion
and amputation. The following is just a sample of the primary concept of fighting
for Allah that the Qur’an requires:

“And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out
from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer thanslaughter,
and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you
in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of
the unbelievers.” Surah 2.191

“And fight with them until there is no persecution, and
religion should be only for Allah, but if they desist, then there should
be no hostility except against the oppressors.” Surah 2.193

“…let those fight in the way of Allah, who sell this world's
life for the hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of Allah, then be he
slain or be he victorious, We shall grant him a mighty reward.” Surah 4.74

“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and
His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they
should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut
off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace
for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement,” Surah
5.33

“Those who believe fight in the way of Allah,…” Surah
8.39

The commandment
of the Lord is as different as darkness and light, for He says, “Love ye
your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward
shall be great, and ye shall be the children
of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore
merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”13 While
many individual Muslims may deplore atrocities committed in the name of Islam,
it cannot be denied that these atrocities are justifiedand encouraged by Islamic
teaching. Even the most moderate form of Islam is incompatible with Biblical
truth.

RCC dogma on Islam changed

Nonetheless, after
six centuries of condemning of Islam and two centuries of Crusades against
the Muslims, modern Roman Catholicism is
welcoming and affirming the religion of Mohammed. Rome now accepts Islam as
having the same faith of Abraham as herself. How can the Roman Catholic Church
espouse a religion that utterly rejects the Trinity, the divinity of the Lord
Jesus Christ and His Gospel? Clearly, the Roman Catholic Church still plays
the adaptable chameleon — for since Vatican Council II, she has in Muslim circles
embraced Islam to the extent that she calls praiseworthy that which she once
had denounced as evil and the object of war.

In 1095, Pope Urban
II called for a “War of the Cross,” or
a Crusade, to retake the holy lands from the infidel Muslim Turks. Several
versions of his speech at the end of a Church Council have survived. Although
we cannot be sure of the exact words the Pope used, the substance however is
the same. The heart and mind of papal power in twelfth and thirteenth centuries
is seen in these sentences, “All who die by the way, whether by land or by
sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins.
This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.”14

The present Pope
and his Church uphold the teaching that the definitions of all Roman Pontiffs
pertaining to faith or morals of the Roman
Pontiff are “irreformable by their very nature.”15 If the present Roman Pontiff, John Paul II,
has proclaimed Muslims to be acceptable as believers, then by that same proclamation,
Urban II and the whole line of Crusading Popes have been proven to be damnable
heretics, since they condemned Muslims and fought against them!

Emotional unity and its
consequences

The ecumenism of
the Papacy with Islam is of grave concern for the true body of Christ to
consider. The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II
sees himself as the one capable of bringing in a New World Order, in which
Rome will be the Mother and Lawmaker. Through his Vatican II documents the
Pope declares, “The encouragement of unity is in harmony with the deepest nature
of the [Roman Catholic] Church’s mission….”16 On an highly emotional spiritual level there
has been a great common-ground meeting place between Rome and Mecca in the
town of Fatima in Portugal. To quote a Catholic news organization, “Our Lady
of Fatima is really Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Mohammed…On October 23,
1995, Iranian television began running stories that the apparitions in Fatima,
Portugal in 1917 were religious phenomena of Muslim origin.”17 Islam teaches that men can achieve favor
with God by what a person does. On the Fatima site in Portugal May 13th 2000,
the Pope proclaimed a message that could be readily accepted by both Muslims
and Catholics. “‘Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls
go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them’....”18

Heroic deeds to
win the approval of God appeal to the natural man, including the devout Muslim;
it is, however, light years away from the
Gospel of grace. The Pope’s message, and the message and veneration of heroism
in Islam are a total negation of the Gospel, “not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.... ”19 In practice both systems — a mammoth one
billion adherents each — are totalitarian, synthesizing spiritual and civil
power in their doctrinal presentations and cultic practices. The global hierarchy
and infrastructure of the RCC, however, is far more developed than that of
Islam.20 The bringing together of both under the
Roman Pontiff, who calls himself the Vicar of Christ, would make for a political
powerhouse of vast consequences.

Pope’s
message echoed by Bush and Muslim Leaders

The drawing of governments
and religions even more closely into a global coalition before a politically
constructed god has already begun.
Rome has many times shown herself as the one to whom all can come for unity
within her. Islam as such is still accepted as a valid religion, and the terrorists
of September understood to be fallen from their religion, rather than upholding
its teachings. In the words of President George W. Bush, “These murderers have
hijacked a great religion in order to justify their evil deeds. And we cannot
let it stand.”21 The Muslims themselves are giving the same
message. For example, the Associated Press reported,

An international
Muslim religious ruling endorsed the morality of the U.S.-led military
effort against terrorists…The ruling… was written
by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the widely respected chairman of the Sunna and
Sira Council in Qatar, along with three colleagues in Egypt and one in Syria.
The new fatwa cited the words of God in the Quran and authoritative Hadith… ‘All
Muslims ought to be united against all those who terrorize the innocents,
and those who permit the killing of non-combatants without a justifiable
reason,’ the fatwa said…The five jurists also said Muslims have a duty to
speak up about the faith's anti-terrorism stand.22

This spin on Islam
is perfectly in line with what Pope and the Vatican declared, “together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s
judge on the last day.”23 It looks as if the Pope,
the politicians, and the Muslims continue to conceal successfully the history
of Mohammed and the contents of his Qur’an.

A Trumpet Call to the True
Church

The Pope's profession
of a ‘civilization of love’ in his rapprochement
with Islam represents only another tactical re-appraisal of circumstances and
opportunities for Rome. It is merely the old idol of humanistic sentiment religiously
recycled and held out to the world as the cohesive force that will unite all
sincere religious people in a concordat of international condemnation against
the kind of anti-social fanaticism that led to the September 11th horror. The
profound danger for Evangelical people is that they, unthinking, might come
to embrace Rome’s claim to be the true spokesman for Christ on this earth,
a lie which is deeply embedded in this new thrust for inter-faith ecumenicity.
The Pope is not a first among equals as a bishop. Frankly, he is not even a
bishop in the biblical sense of the term. Karol Wojtyla is the head of a totalitarian
hierarchy. Its position as the restored Holy Roman Empire is depicted in the
Bible. He is an absolute monarch. He has his own secular government of Vatican
City and more property worldwide than any other person on the planet. He has
territorial dominions, cardinals, ambassadors worldwide, a detective force,
legislature, jurisprudence, laws, advocates, taxes, banks, foreign treaties,
ambitious plans and policy, more than any other secular Prince. But he differs
from other secular leaders: his spiritual commerce goes hand in hand with his
civil power, claiming infallibility and international recognition. The Pope
in his own laws declares, “There is neither appeal nor recourse against a decision
or decree of the Roman Pontiff.” His arrogance is not just in spiritual matters,
but in secular affairs also, for he claims supreme power as much as any totalitarian
ruler, “The First See is judged by no one.”24 “It
is solely the right of the Roman Pontiff himself o judge…those who hold the
highest civil office in a state...”25 This Pope
desires partnership with Islam. His claims echo II Thessalonians 2:4, “Who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God”and Isaiah 14:14, "I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like most High.” Had
notHoly Scripture warned us of this we would rightly be afraid. The Sovereign
God remains sovereign. His purposes may be the purification of the Bride of
Christ Jesus, the remnant pilgrim Church on earth. The Lord Jesus Christ did
not elect the Pope as His Vicar on earth; rather He and the Father gave to
the Holy Spirit of Truth to that position.

If contemporary
Evangelical leaders and their disciples discount and ignore these utterly
basic prophetic and historical facts, they must understand
they are placing themselves outside the stream of historic biblical Christianity.
They are willingly divorcing themselves from great men of the faith ¾ Wycliff,
Huss, Luther, Tyndale, Calvin, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Bradford, Foxe, Bunyan,
Newton, Edwards, Whitefield, Wesley, Spurgeon, Ryle, and Lloyd-Jones to mention
just a few. It is impossible to hold to the Gospel of Christ and simultaneously
accord any legitimacy to the accommodations of the papal system. The Lord of
Glory Himself will not allow such behavior to go unpunished. If Evangelicals
continue to fraternize with Rome, it will mark a major, irrevocable betrayal
of the Gospel testimony toward the poor deluded adherents of Romanism and leave
them languishing in the claws of the devil. In other words, in simple terms
of loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, those claiming to be believers must “Come
out of her…that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues.”26 There is no common ground between the religion
of apostasy and the Gospel of the Apostles. In spite of papal declarations
of a truce and vacuous “Evangelical” alliances with the enemies of Christ, “Enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,” Genesis 3:1,
is an epitomized history of conflict which, from the moment of the Fall, has
been waged between the children of light and of darkness, between those who
adhere to the Gospel of grace and God’s righteousness, and those who are ranged
on the side of the Devil by their love of accommodation and compromise. At
this moment of history the Ecumenism of accommodation, with the Pope leading
the pack, accepts Islam as a great religion. The true believer must decide
where he or she stands. “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose
you this day whom ye will serve.”27